Leda Catunda’s Sharjah exhibition closes 8 Feb 2026

January 21, 2026 / 8:33 PM

Sharjah 24: Leda Catunda’s largest monographic presentation outside of Brazil, I like to like what others are liking, concludes on 8 February 2026. On view at Galleries 4 and 5 in Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah, the exhibition brings together four decades of work, tracing the evolution of her practice from figurative painting to hybrid, materially driven forms that explore abstraction and dimensionality.

Catunda played a vital role in reshaping Brazil’s art scene in the 1980s, blurring the line between painting and sculpture through a process-driven approach informed by pop culture and consumerism. By the 1990s, she had deepened her experimentation with volume, shape and surface. Works like O Fígado [The Liver] (1990); Barriga [Belly] (1993); and Duas Barrigas [Two Bellies] (1993) suggest organic bodily forms through soft, bulging contours.

In recent years, her work has taken on a baroque intensity. Layered, proliferative, tongue-like forms appear in works such as Duas línguas [Two tongues] (2021), Gomos [Segments] (2023), and the ‘Escamosa’ [Scaly] series (2021–2023), while Caprichosa [Capricious] (2024) and Mil saias [Thousand skirts] (2025) transform textiles into dense constructs that test the boundaries of excess.

The exhibition also features works on paper and an archival display from the artist’s personal holdings, providing insight into her process and the Brazilian art scene.

Leda Catunda: I like to like what others are liking is curated by Her Highness Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, Director and President of Sharjah Art Foundation, with Meera Madhu, Curatorial Assistant at the Foundation.